Saturday, April 13, 2019

Mind & Happiness 155

The
Mind consists of 2 distinct aspects, namely the Knowing Subject, which is our root
thought "I", & the Known Objects, which are all the other
thoughts that are formed & experienced by this "I". However, though it consists of these 2
distinct aspects or elements, the 1 Fundamental & Essential element
of our Mind is only our causal Thought "I".

Hence,
though we use the term "Mind" as a collective term for both the
Thinker & its Thoughts, our Mind is in essence just the Thinker, the
basic thought "I" that thinks
all other Thoughts. This simple but
important truth is expressed succinctly by Sri Ramana in Verse 18 of Upadēśa
Undiyār:

"Our]
Mind is only [a multitude of] thoughts.
Of all [the countless thoughts that are formed in our Mind], the thought
'I' alone is the Root [base, foundation or origin]. [Therefore] what is called 'Mind' is [in
essence just this root thought] 'I'."

Just
as on analysis our Mind can thus be resolved into Existence in essence only
this fundamental thought "I", so on further analysis this fundamental
thought "I" can in turn be resolved into being in essence only
Consciousness. Because it knows other
thoughts, this thought "I" is a form of Consciousness, but because it
rises or is formed only by feeling "I am such-&-such a
person" & because it subsides & loses its separate form in Deep
Dreamless Sleep, when it ceases to feel thus, it is not our permanent &
"real" form of Consciousness, our pure Consciousness "I
exist".

Because it can
rise only by identifying a physical Body as "I", as it does in both
Waking & Dream, it is a mixed & contaminated form of Consciousness, a
"consciousness" that confuses itself with a Body, feeling mistakenly
"I am this Body, an individual person called so-&-so".

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Mind & Happiness 154

Thus
far the Mind–Brain process is very
clear-cut & simple to understand. But
then something mysterioushappens.
Our Mind, which is a form of Consciousness
that interfaces with our Brain, then somehow interprets all this electro-chemical
activity by forming images within
itself that we believe to correspond to the shape, color & size of external
objects, & to their relative distance from our Body. But all we actually know when we see something
is the image that our Mind has formed
within itself.

Our
belief that such images correspond to
actual external objects, & all our scientific explanations of the supposed process by which Light from those
objects stimulates our Mind to form such Umages, are also only Images or
thoughts that our Mind has formed within itself. The same applies to all the Images of Sound,
Smell, Taste, & Touch that our Mind forms within itself,

supposedly
in response to external stimuli.

Therefore
all that we know of the external World
is actually only the Images or Thoughts that our Mind is constantly forming
within itself. Do we not have to accept,
therefore, that the World that we think we perceive outside our self may in
fact be nothing other than thoughts that our Mind has formed within itself,
just as the Worlds that we see in our Dreams are ? Even if we are not ready to accept the fact
that the World may actually be nothing but our own Thoughts, must we not at
least accept the fact that the World as we know it & as we ever can know
it, is indeed nothing but thoughts ? [ala George Berkekey etc.]

Of
all the thoughts that are formed in our Mind, the 1st is the thought "I". Our Mind 1st forms itself as the thought "I", & only
then does it form other thoughts. Without
an "I" to think or know them, no other thoughts could be formed.

All
the other thoughts that are formed in our Mind are constantly coming &
going, rising & then subsiding,
but the thought "I" persists so long as our Mind itself persists. Thus the thought "I" is the root of
all other thoughts, & is the one Essential thought without which there
would be no such thing as "Mind" & no such action as
"thinking".

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Mind & Happiness 153

We should
understand the un-reality & insubstantiality of our Mind, because only then
will we be truly convinced of the fact that the only means to overcome our Mind
& all its self-delusive tricks is
to ignore it by attending only to our Real underlying Consciousness – our

Essential
Non-Dual Self-Consciousness "I exist". Therefore, before investigating the Nature of
our real Consciousness, let us first investigate the nature of this un-real Consciousness
that we call our "Mind".

Nature of Our
Mind:

We call
our "Mind" is just a limited & distorted form of our Original & Fundamental Consciousness "I
exist" – a spurious form of Consciousness that identifies itself with a
particular Body, & that appears to exist only in the States of Waking &
Dream, & disappears in Deep Dreamless Sleep. Since this Mind is the primary obstacle that
stands in the way of our knowing our Self as we really are, we now examine it more
closely. What is the nature of this limited & distorted form of Consciousness
that we call our "Mind"?

Our Mind
as we now know it is just a bundle of thoughts
–thoughts, that is, in the very broadest sense of the term, namely
anything that our Mind forms & experiences within itself, such as any Perception,
Conception, Idea, Belief, Feeling, Emotion, Desire, Fear, or such-like. All thoughtsare
just images that our Mind forms
within itself by its power of Imagination. Other than our Fundamental Consciousness "I
exist", each & everything that our Mind knows or experiences is only a
thought that it forms within itself.

Even
our Perceptions are only thoughts or
mental images that our Mind forms
within itself by its wonderful power of Imagination. Whether Perceptions in the
WakingState are
formed only by our Mind's power of Imagination without any external stimuli, as in Dream, or whether they are

formed
by our Mind's power of Imagination in response to actual external stimuli, is something we can know for certain only when
we discover the Ultimate Truth about our Mind.

Because
the fact that all our perceptions are only thoughts
is so important, we examine it a little more closely, using the example of Vision.
According to the "scientific"
explanation of the process of Seeing, light from the outside World enters our
eyeballs & stimulates electrochemical reactions in the light-sensitive
cells at the back of them. These cells
then stimulate a chain of

further electro-chemical
reactions along our Optic nerves, & these in turn reach our Brain &
cause more electrochemical activity to take place there.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Mind & Happiness 152

Because the "adjuncts" or "Sheaths" have no inherent & permanent Existence or Consciousness of their own, Sri Ramana concluded that they are all asat – unreal or devoid of true Existence – & jaḍa – inconscient or devoid of true Consciousness. Therefore they cannot be "I", our Real Self, which is Absolute Existence or sat & Absolute Consciousness or cit.

Once we have thus understood that our Body, our Mind & all our other adjuncts are not our Real Self, we should ignore them. Instead of wasting our Time & energy examining or thinking about them or anything else that is not our Real Self, we should direct all our energy & effort into scrutinising only our Self – our own Essential Self-Conscious Existence, which we always experience as "I exist" – because we can know who or what we really are only by keenly scrutinizing or attending to our own Real & Essential Self.

By analyzing our experience of our Self in our 3 States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep), we are able to gain a clear theoretical understanding of what we really are. However, this theoretical understanding is not an end in itself, but is merely the means to discover how we can gain true experiential knowledge of our Real Nature. Since we have learned by our critical analysis that our True Nature, our Real Self, is only our Non-Dual "Existence–Consciousness", which we always experience as "I exist". All we need do in order to gain true experiential Self-Knowledgeis to scrutinize our "Existence–Consciousness" with a keenly focused power of attention.

Our real Consciousness is only our "Existence Consciousness" – our Essential Self-Consciousness "I exist". Our Mind or "knowing Consciousness" is merely an un-real form of Consciousness, which exists only in its own Imagination, & which is therefore experienced only by itself & not by our real "Existence Consciousness". Since the imaginary rising of this unreal "knowing consciousness" is the cloud that seemingly obscures our real "Existence–Consciousness", preventing us from experiencing it as it really is, let us now proceed to examine the nature of this un-real "knowing Consciousness" – our own self-deceptive Mind.

Though our ultimate aim is to ignore our Mind and to attend only to our own True Self, which is the Reality that underlies it, we will nevertheless derive great benefit from examining the Nature of our Mind more deeply & thereby understanding it more clearly. There are 2 main reasons for this:

1st & most importantly: it is Essential that we should understand & be firmly convinced of the fact that our Mind is un-real & is therefore not our True Self or "I" – our Essential & Real form of Consciousness. Since our Mind is an impostor who deludes us into mistaking it to be our Self, we must be able to see through its self-deceptive Nature in order to recognize our Real Self, which underlies its false appearance, just as a Rope underlies the false appearance of an Imaginary Snake.

2nd: is that when we try to scrutinize our Real Self, the only obstacle that will actually stand in our way will be our own Mind. Since our Mind is the primary enemy that will oppose & obstruct all our efforts to know our Real Self, we should understand this enemy correctly in order to use it to our advantage & to avoid falling prey to all its subtle & self-delusive tricks.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Mind & Happiness 151

We experience our Mind & Intellect, which are actually just 2 functions of the 1 individual Consciousness that we generally call our Mind or Ego, in both Waking & Dream, but not in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

We experience our Present physical Body & the Life-Force within it only in this Waking State, & in each of our other States of Dream we experience some other physical Body & its corresponding Life-Force. And we experience the 5th adjunct, the seeming "Darkness" of Deep Dreamless Sleep, only in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

Therefore, since we experience none of these 5 adjuncts in all our 3 States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep). They cannot be our Real Self. They are not our Real Existence, or our Real Consciousness. They are merely impostors – "phantoms" that we imagine to be our Self for a short period of time, but from which we are able to separate our Self at other times. Independent of our Real Self-Conscious Existence, "I exist", they [the 5 adjuncts / Sheaths] do not exist, nor do they know their own "existence".

Though our Mind may appear to be "conscious" of itself now, it is not conscious of itself at all Times & in all States (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep). The Mind's seeming Self-Consciousness is therefore not inherent in the Mind & hence is not Real. The Mind borrows its seeming Self-Consciousness from our Real Self-Consciousness, which alone is conscious of itself at all times & in all States (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).

The Existence & the Consciousness of our Body, our Mind & our other adjuncts are not Real, but are mere apparitions – Illusions created by our power of Imagination. Their Existence & their Consciousness appear to be Real only when we mistake them to be our Self. By our power of Imagination we superimpose these adjuncts upon our own Real Existence & Consciousness, & hence they appear to "exist" & to be conscious.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Friday, March 8, 2019

Mind & Happiness 150

In Verse 22 of Upadēśa Undiyār Sri Ramana briefly states the essential conclusion that we should arrive at by means of the rational process of Self-Analysis, which in the ancient texts of advaita vēdānta is called nēti nēti or "not thus, not thus":

The 5 objects that Sri Ramana declares in this Verse to be not "I", namely our Body (annamaya kōśa), Mind (manōmaya kōśa), Intellect (vijñānamaya kōśa), Life (prāṇamaya kōśa), & Darkness (avidya –ānandamaya kōśa), are generally known in vēdānta as the pañca-kōśas or "5 Sheaths", because they are the 5 adjuncts that seemingly cover & obscure our Consciousness of our Real Self.

These 5 adjuncts or "Sheaths" are the annamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of food", which is our physical Body, the prāṇamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of prāṇa, Life, vitality or breath", which is the Life-Force that animates our physical Body, the manōmaya kōśa or "sheath composed of Mind", which is our Mind or faculty of mentation & cognition, the vijñānamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of discriminative knowledge", which is our Intellect or faculty of discernment or judgement, & the ānandamaya kōśa or "sheath composed of Happiness", which is the happy but seemingly unconscious form in which we experience our Self in Deep Dreamless Sleep.

However, what is important in this Verse 22 of Upadēśa Undiyār is not the terms that are used to denote these adjuncts that we imagine to be our self, but is the conclusion that they are not actually our Real Self. Our Real Self is sat & cit, Existence & Consciousness, whereas our Body, our Life-Force, our Mind, our intellect & the seeming Darkness of Deep Dreamless Sleep are all asat & jaḍa, that is, they have no Real Existence or Consciousness of their own. They appear to exist only when we know them, & we do not know any of them in all our 3 normal States of Consciousness (Waking, Dream, & Deep Dreamless Sleep).

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Mind & Happiness 149

In Verse 43 of Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai Sri Ramana prays to Arunachala, who is our Real Self in its function as guru, the Power of Grace that bestows true Self-Knowledge: tāṉē tāṉē tattuvam idaṉai-t tāṉē kaṭṭuvāy aruṇācalā.

The Tamil word tāṉ is a singular reflexive pronoun meaning "oneself", "myself", "itself", "your self", & so on, & the letter ē that is appended to it is an emphatic suffix that conveys the sense "itself", "alone", or "indeed". Thus the meaning of this quintessential prayer is:

Our Real Self is the only "truly existing" tattva, the one Non-Dual Infinite & Absolute Reality. We can know this only when it shows itself to us, which it does by drawing our Mind or power of attention inwards, towards Itself. Our Real Self thereby dissolves us by absorbing us as one with Itself, our own Essential Existence. So long as we pay even the least attention to anything other than our Essential Existence, we cannot know our self as we really are.

Since all the other so-called tattvas – which include our Intellect, our Ego, our Mind, our 5ive Sense-organs, our 5 organs of action, the 5 tanmātras, which are the subtle essences of each of the 5 forms of Sense perception, namely sound, touch, form, taste & smell, & the 5 elements, namely Space, air, water, fire & earth – appear & disappear, they are merely ephemeral apparitions or illusions, & hence they are not real tattvas. Since the World is composed of these ephemeral & Illusory tattvas, it is itself a mere illusion, & therefore Sri Ramana concludes the 17th paragraph of Nāṉ Yār? by saying that we should consider it to be a mere Dream. Hence, since our Body is a part of this illusory & dreamlike World, we should consider it likewise to be merely an unreal Illusion, a product of our own power of Imagination.

Since none of these other tattvas are Real, neither they nor anything composed of them can be our True Self, & therefore we should not waste our time & energy thinking about them, enumerating them, classifying them or examining their properties, but should ignore them entirely & instead attend only to our real "I" – our Fundamental & Essential Consciousness of our own True Existence. The only need we have to consider our Body, our Mind & all our other adjuncts is to understand the fact that they are un-real, & are therefore not "I".

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Monday, February 25, 2019

Mind & Happiness 148

The portion added by Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai to Nan Yar? [Who Am I?] may appear to be of some use as an aid to understanding Sri Ramana's simple answer, "Knowledge alone is I." However, the presentation & wording of this added portion does not truly reflect Sri Ramana"s natural style of teaching, or his usual choice of words. His natural style was always to answer questions briefly, simply & to the point. Unless he was talking to someone whose Mind was already steeped in the complex & often obscure concepts & terminology of traditional vēdānta, he generally avoided using such concepts & terminology, & instead used only simple Tamil words, or words borrowed from Sanskrit whose meaning was clear & straightforward. Since many people who came to him were not well versed in traditional vēdāntic or yōgic concepts, he avoided as far as possible cluttering & burdening their Minds with such concepts, except for a few that were really useful & pertinent.

In particular, he avoided all the detailed descriptions & classifications of the "non-self" – whatever is not our Real Self – which are given in many traditional texts. As Sri Ramana writes in the 17th paragraph of Nāṉ Yār?:

"Just as no benefit [is to be gained] by a person, who should sweep up & throw away rubbish, scrutinising it, so no benefit [is to be gained] by a person, who should know [his or her real] self, calculating that the tattvas [detailed aspects of an objective 'realm'] , which are concealing [our real] self, are 'this many' & scrutinising their qualities, instead of gathering up & rejecting all of them. It is necessary [for us] to consider the World [which is composed of these tattvas] like a Dream."

That is, in plainer English, just as we would derive no benefit by scrutinising a mass of rubbish, instead of just sweeping it up & throwing it away, so we will derive no benefit by enumerating & investigating the nature of the tattvas, which constitute all that is "non-self" & which therefore obscure our knowledge of our Real Self, instead of rejecting all of them & thereby knowing our Real Self, which is the one true Existence or Essential Substance that underlies their imaginary appearance.

The word tattva, whose etymological meaning is "it-ness" or "that-ness", basically means that which is real, true & essential, the "reality", "truth", or "essence", but it is commonly used to mean any basic element or constituent quality that is considered to be real. In this context, therefore, the plural term tattvas denotes all the ontological principles – the basic "elements", essential components or abstract qualities of which all things are supposed to be made. The various schools of Indian philosophy each give their own classification of these so-called tattvas, & each reckon that there are a different number of them, a number that usually does not exceed 36 [commonly 24]. However, though some of them may use a different word to describe it,

most of these schools agree that the original & fundamental tattva is paramātman, the "Supreme Self" or "Transcendent Spirit", which is also called puruṣa, the primal "Person" or "Spirit". This puruṣa or paramātman is in fact our own Real Self, our own spirit or Essential Self-Conscious Existence, which we always experience as "I exist". Since this Primal Spirit "I exist" is the only tattva that exists permanently, without either appearing or disappearing, it is the only Real tattva.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Mind & Happiness 147

In Nāṉ Yār? "Who am I ?", the qualification of the word "Knowledge" by the addition of the defining clause "that stands detached [separated or alone] having done nēti [by thinking] that all the above things are not 'I' " is potentially misleading, because it could create the impression that simply by thinking nēti nēti, "not thus, not thus" or "this is not I, this is not I", we can detach our

Essential Consciousness or Knowledge "I exist" from everything with which we now confuse it.

In fact, many "scholars" who attempt to explain the ancient texts of vēdānta, which often describe this process of nēti nēti or negation of all that is not our Real Self, interpret it to be the actual means by which we can attain Self-Knowledge. However, the Sages who first taught the rational

process of Self-Analysis called nēti nēti did not intend it to be understood as the actual technique of practical or empirical research, but only as the "theoretical" basis upon which the empirical technique of ātma-vicāra or Self-Investigation should be based.

The rational & analytical process which is described in the ancient texts of vēdānta as nēti nēti or "not thus, not thus" is essentially a "logical" analysis of our experience of our Self. If we do not 1st critically analyze our experience of our Self in this manner, we would not be able to understand either the reason why we should seek true self-knowledge, or what exactly we should scrutinize in order to know our Real Self.

So long as we imagine that we are really our physical Body, our thinking Mind or any other object, we will imagine that we can know our self by attending to such things, & hence we will not be able to understand what is really meant by the terms ātma-vicāra, Self-Investigation, Self-Examination, Self-Scrutiny, Self-Inquiry, Self-Attention, Self-Attentiveness, or Self-Remembrance.

Only when we understand the essential theory that we are nothing other than our Fundamental Non-Dual Self-Consciousness – our adjunct-free Consciousness of our own mere Existence, which we experience just as "I exist" & not as "I am this" – will we be able to understand what actually is the "Self" or "I" that we should scrutinize or attend to.

Once we have understood that we are truly not our physical Body, not our thinking Mind, nor any other object known by us, we should not continue thinking, "this Body is not I", "this Mind is not I", & so on, but should withdraw our attention from all such things, & focus it wholly & exclusively upon our real & Essential Existence.

We cannot know our Real Self by thinking [even in negating] of anything that is not "I", but only by investigating, scrutinizing, or attending keenly to that which is really "I" – to that which we really are, to our Essential Existence. Unless we withdraw our attention entirely from all other things, we will not be able to focus it wholly & exclusively upon our Essential Existence, which we always experience as "I exist". Unless we focus it thus upon our Essential Existence, we will not be able to attain the Non-Dual experience of true Self-Knowledge.

The above themes & 2500 pages more are freely available as perused or downloaded PDF’s, the sole occupants of a Public Microsoft Skydrive “Public Folder” accessible through www.jpstiga.com

for very succinct summary of the teaching & practice, see: www.ajatavada.com/[A brief note of explanation – the other Blog noted below is entitled "Non-Duality & Science", & so the more Science oriented pages (from what I like to think of as a "comic book") have been posted there, while other chapters have been posted here. Science is a mental discipline that attracts some worthy admirers & participators. Some of these, too few, are good prospects for the ancient teaching introduced here in many ways. Otherwise certain Science topics like the Anthropic Principle, reinforce the general Theism which is a good idea in this materialistic age. A few other topics in Science, such as the Copenhagen II – Max Born – Von Neumann – Wigner model of Quantum Mechanics, are worthy entries to the extent that they introduce Consciousness into the physical Sciences. All that aside, the real topic here is the pinnacle as Advaita Vedanta, Non-Duality – that pinnacle being Ajata Vada, No–Creation. The great Teachers of the same include Sri Shankara & Sri Ramana Maharshi. Both would support Theism in general & adaptations of Vedanta,such as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta – Qualified Non-Duality, for those not making headway in Ajata Vada, their present course of growth might be better served with a temporary involvement in Qualified Non-Duality. The scientist who perhaps best expresses the influence of Qualified Non-Duality in Science, for instance, would be the quintessential "New–Age" Quantum Physicist, Amit Goswami. And so to that source, & the Quantum Activism he currently advocates [with a 1–course degree program], along with more than a half-dozen good books & former participation in the controversial What the Bleep movie, to him I extend enthusiastic endorsement, for that Qualified Non-Duality described in the context of Science. I do not stand so much "with him", as much as nearby saluting his good work. Again, as here, the goal is inserting Consciousness into Science & "saving the World."]also: Most of this material will be long searchable via "John Stiga" etc, on the "Wayback Machine" Internet Archive.Also related to these topics, there are now 8 Kindle books on "Amazon.com", reference-able by the author "John Stiga", each indicated as non–copyrighted, public–domain, & priced at the minimum $0.99 each.